I welcome the announcement by the Minister for Health of a new public health Bill to deal with vaping and vaping products. I believe it was brought as a memo to Cabinet yesterday. We have been very slow as country in dealing with what I now consider to be the scourge of vaping, certainly with regard to access to these pouches and other ancillary products by those aged under 18. I welcome the proposed legislation that will deal with all of these ancillary products that are an offshoot of tobacco and vaping. In Australia, vaping is illegal and people cannot get a vape unless they have a prescription from a GP that states it is required in order to give up smoking. This has dealt with the vaping problem that Australia faced. I had discussions on this issue with Bill Shorten, the then minister for disabilities in Australia, when he was here a couple of years ago.

I have been saying for a long time that we need to look at making vaping illegal and having a requirement for people to have a prescription to purchase vaping products. I know this is punitive and may not happen but we need to escalate our legislation to deal with, for example, vaping shops on our high streets and vaping advertisements. We got rid of smoking advertisements at the point of sale and we need to do the same with vaping. There is a lot we can do before we ban it to reduce it. If we do not do so, we are not doing a service to our young people. I welcome the legislation but I sincerely hope that, when it goes through the Houses, we can add more to it, such as on the advertising of vapes. No more than what Senator Kelleher alluded to in terms of legislation being abused by zero-alcohol products, I am afraid the high streets in most of our towns are really taking a downward spiral with all of these vape shops.